Friday, December 18, 2009

Mariners Trade For Milton Bradley

The Cubs traded Milton Bradley to the Mariners for Carlos Silva, according to a tweet from Larry Stone. Silva had a 8.60 ERA in six starts, and was later determined to have a frayed shoulder labrum and rotator cuff, with an impingement. He spent the rest of the season on the 60-day DL after he was disabled on May 9.

Silva has two years and $23M left of his 4-year, $48M contract (with a $12M mutual option for 2012, or a $2M buyout), while Bradley has two years and $21M left on his three year deal with the Cubs. I'm not so sanguine about the deal for either side; it's a trade of injury-prone players with expensive contracts, so if either side can get anything useful out of it, that's gravy.

Both sides get something out of this deal. Because the Cubs are getting a bit of money back from the Mariners, they're a bit better off than they would have been had they simply released Bradley.

The Mariners get rid of Silva, who was totally useless to the Mariners, and for a net outlay of few million dollars a year fill a gaping hole in their lineup. When/if Bradley implodes it would be pretty easy to simply release him. If Bradley hangs together, though, they just filled one of the biggest holes in their lineup pretty cheaply. Lot of upside here for the Mariners, and there net cost to take on Bradley is pretty small.

If they can make another solid acquisition at first place (such as bringing back Branyan) they've got a great lineup - on paper, of course.